Morrison, Jeffry H. 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born April 27, 1961. Education: McDaniel College, B.A., 1983; Boston College, M.A. (with distinction), 1994; Georgetown University, Ph.D. (with distinction), 1999.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Regent University, Robertson School of Government, 1000 Regent University Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23464. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Political scientist, historian, educator, lawyer, writer, and editor. Kallina & Associates, Baltimore, MD, attorney, 1987-92; Georgetown University, Washington, DC, lecturer and research fellow, 1995-99, adjunct professor of history, 2002-04; U.S. Air Force Academy, USAFA, CO, assistant professor of political science, 1999-2001; Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, assistant professor, 2001-03, associate professor of government, 2004—; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, visiting assistant professor of politics, 2003-04. Also James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, Washington, DC, faculty member.

MEMBER:

Phi Sigma Tau, Pi Sigma Alpha.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bradley Research Fellow, Georgetown University, 1995-98; Charles R. Coble, Jr., Memorial Award for Excellence in Research in Political Science, Department of Political Science, U.S. Air Force Academy, 2001; James Madison Visiting Fellow in American Ideals and Institutions, Department of Politics, Princeton University, 2003-04.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark D. Hall) The Founders on God and Government, foreword by Michael Novak, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2004.

John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 2005.

Contributor to The Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics, 1998. Contributor to Journal of Church and State.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffry H. Morrison is a historian and political scientist who has written about religion's influence on law and politics and about the political history of the United States. He is the editor, with Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark D. Hall, of The Founders on God and Government, which contains essays on how the religious beliefs of America's founding fathers affected their views concerning the interaction of politics, government, and religion in the recently established United States.

Writing in the book's foreword, Michael Novak notes that historians have primarily focused on the political and economic aspects of the country's founding but have paid little attention to religious practice or provided an in-depth analysis of the role religious thought played in the founders' outlook toward creating a new nation. Novak writes: "As a consequence, historians since 1950 do not place the American founding in a true international perspective. They seem uncommonly cut off from its historical roots in centuries of philosophical reflection on God, creation, and the proper relation of rational creatures to their creator. Such materials were consciously in the minds of graduates of elite colleges during the founding period." Novak went on to write later in the foreword that "this book represents an exciting collection of no small importance to world civilization just as the twenty first century opens." Novak adds that the world, including Europe, has paid little heed to the many ramifications concerning liberty that the founding of the United States entailed. He notes: "Yet, on nothing, and on nothing so important for the future of the world, were our forebears more brilliant in their originality that in their way of reasoning about religious liberty."

The eight essays in the volume focus on both well-known and lesser-known founders of the republic. They include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and James Wilson. Morrison also provides an essay for the book on John Witherspoon. A ninth essay discusses the notable Catholic Carroll family of Maryland. Primarily revisions of previously published materials, the essays, according to Virginia Magazine of History and Biography contributor Brent Tarter, "make a strong case for taking seriously the proposition that these founders were all religious men and that their religious beliefs shaped their political actions and theories."

Several reviewers had strong praise for this book about the relationship between faith and politics at the time of America's founding. Noting that "among the best of the essays are Morrison's on John Witherspoon and James R. Stoner's on the Carroll family of Maryland," Thomas B. Mega went on to write in his review in the Catholic Historical Review: "This collection goes a long way toward putting us in the mindset of the founding period of the United States." Journal of Church and State contributor Hunter Baker noted that there has been much ambiguity in political and historical thought concerning what the founding fathers thought regarding the extent of the separation of church and state. Baker wrote: "This book is clearly offered as something of a rebuke to those who would engage in excessive religious sanitizing of the history of the founding generation, but it is also generally modest and fair in its conclusions."

Morrison expands on his discussion in The Founders on God and Government of the relatively unknown founding father John Witherspoon with his book John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian pastor and president of the College of New Jersey, which eventually became Princeton University. While largely ignored by historians today and essentially unknown by the American public, Witherspoon was well respected by his colleagues and fellow founders of the United States and is the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Writing in the New Criterion, Roger Kimball commented that "during his lifetime Witherspoon enjoyed a very high reputation not only as a clergyman but also as a public intellectual and man of affairs."

In his book, Morrison does not provide a standard biography of Witherspoon but rather focuses on Witherspoon's career and political thought. The author, however, does reveal that Witherspoon was born and raised in Scotland, where he was educated during the period of the Scottish Enlightenment. This remarkable period in the eighteenth century, according to historians, was marked by tremendous intellectual and scientific accomplishments that rivaled those made by any other nations up to that point in history. According to Morrison, Witherspoon brought a sensibility nurtured by the Scottish Enlightenment to his efforts in America when he came to take over a failing college in New Jersey in 1768.

"As the foremost pastor in one of the most influential churches in colonial America, Witherspoon was one of the most notable clergymen of his era," wrote Bradley J. Longfield in a review in the Journal of Law and Religion. "His writings were far-ranging, including works in natural philosophy (science), political economy, and moral philosophy. Witherspoon linked private morality and public order, and he encouraged pastors to watch over the personal lives of their congregants for the public good."

In his book, Morrison not only looks at Witherspoon's many accomplishments and contributions as a founding father, but also at the reasons why Witherspoon's reputation was so overshadowed by those of his fellow founders, thus leading to Witherspoon becoming forgotten in modern American history. For example, the author notes that a fire ended up destroying Witherspoon's library and all of his correspondence, thus leaving historians with much less to work with when researching Witherspoon. The author also discusses Witherspoon's contributions outside of the founding of a new nation, such as his role in introducing a generation of young Americans to the themes of the Enlightenment. Furthermore, Witherspoon was part of New Jersey's provincial and state legislatures, a member of the Continental and Confederation Congresses, and part of the New Jersey Convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution. Witherspoon also coined the words "campus" for the place where colleges were located and the term "Americanism."

"It is strange but true that scholars have had to wait so long for an adequate study of John Witherspoon's place in the American founding," wrote Jonathan O'Neill in History, adding in the same review that John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic "is likely to become the standard work on Witherspoon's political thought and career." Journal of Church and State contributor Thomas S. Kidd referred to the book as a "valuable intellectual biography."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Morrison, Jeffry H., Daniel L. Dreisbach, and Mark D. Hall, editors, The Founders on God and Government, foreword by Michael Novak, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2004.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 2007, Michael P. Zuckert, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 189.

Catholic Historical Review, July, 2006, Thomas B. Mega, review of The Founders on God and Government, p. 350.

Church History, June, 2006, Mark A. Noll, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 446.

History, October, 2006, Jonathan O'Neill, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 587.

Journal of American History, June, 2006, Maxine N. Lurie, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 193.

Journal of Church and State, winter, 2006, Thomas S. Kidd, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 226; winter, 2006, Hunter Baker, review of The Founders on God and Government, p. 224.

Journal of Law and Religion, Volume 21, issue 1, 2005-2006, Marci A. Hamilton, review of The Founders on God and Government, p. 173; Volume 21, issue 2, 2005-2006, Bradley J. Longfield, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 455.

Journal of the Early Republic, summer, 2006, Johann N. Neem, "One Nation under Law: America's Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State," review of The Founders on God and Government, p. 333.

Modern Age, March 22, 2006, Gerald J. Russello, "The Quintessential Founder," review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 169.

New Criterion, June, 2006, Roger Kimball, "The Forgotten Founder: John Witherspoon," p. 4.

Perspectives on Political Science, fall, 2005, James R. Hurtgen, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 235.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, spring, 2005, Brent Tarter, review of The Founders on God and Government, p. 187.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (April, 2006), John Fea, review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic.

Regent University,http://www.regent.edu/ (May 29, 2008), faculty profile of author.